CHILDBEARING (τεκνογονίας), often also termed childbirth or more technically parturition, refers to the act of bringing forth a child. It involves much physical effort on the part of the mother, which is appropriately called labor. For this reason it is often accomplished with greater facility by those who have indulged in regular physical exercise such as the Heb. women slaves in Egypt did, as compared with most of the rest of the Egyp. populace who doubtless lived in greater ease. This evidently accounts for the statement of Exodus 1:19 that the Heb. women were more lively than Egyp. women and were delivered before the midwives attended them. It is also to be noted in this connection that childbirth was accomplished with the mother sitting on a birthstool (1:16) whereby the force of gravity enhanced the process, prob. the same doubleseated stool used by Egyp. peasant women today. Labor normally consists of three stages: (1) dilation of the mouth (cervix) of the womb lasting eight to fourteen hours, (2) expulsion of the infant through a period of an hour or two as the womb contracts more frequently and more forcibly, and (3) separation and expulsion of the afterbirth (placenta) usually within fifteen minutes. Duration of these three stages varies with the size and shape of the mother’s pelvis, physical energy of the mother, size and presenting part of the infant, and possible complications of childbirth. In the NT the term is used once (1 Tim 2:15) with the article, prob. to refer to Genesis 3:15.

The pains of childbearing are mentioned frequently in the Bible to illustrate sudden and unexpected anguish (1 Thess 5:3), or the sorrow accompanying the judgments of God (Isa 13:6-8). Jeremiah in particular seems partial to this figure of speech (Jer 4:31; 6:24; 13:21; 22:23; 49:24; 50:43). Paul uses it once to express his concern for the development of his converts by addressing them as his children, for whom he is again in travail until Christ is reproduced in them (Gal 4:19), and again to depict the suffering of creation which awaits the consummation of the redemption of the body (Rom 8:22). See Birth.

Bibliography A. R. Short, The Bible and Modern Medicine (1953), 35; A. C. Beck, “Childbirth,” EBr (1963), 5:498-501.